Family stories and research stories that tell the tale of my personal research. If you have a similar family line or want to know more. Please contact me!

Monday, June 2, 2014

A Picture that Started a Wonderful Friendship

This is a familiar photo to many in the Shawver family - perhaps without even realizing it. It was on the Shawver family cookbook that was published many years ago. I think it is a rather cool picture as did my mother. We posted in on our website when we first started setting up a genealogy website. One day we received an email from a gentleman who said that they photo really brought back some memories. It reminded him of some pictures that he had seen from his Aunt Jessie. Mom replied back to him and asked if her name was Jessie Bacon...he replied that "why yes it is!" So began a wonderful friendship. His name was Earl Bacon and I think his grandfather was the brother of Aunt Jessie's husband. Anyway, Earl had a wonderful sense of humor and sent the most wonderful jokes. Then there were the emails when he and Mom talked about their families and what was going on in the world. We never met face to face - but we had a close friendship.

Threshing - abt 1910 - Tamsey Shawver is back in the carriage with Aida and Nettie's head is poking out above the grain on the left side. The oldest boy is Merle Davidson (Tamsey's son from her first marriage) and the other two boys are Dewey and George Shawver. George "Chris" Shawver is the older man behind the boys. Taken at Chris Shawver's farm in Pleasant Valley, near Lyons, NE.

Then one day, I had to email Earl Bacon and let him know that Mom had passed away. However, we continued to receive jokes and the odd email for the next year until one day we received an email from his son telling us that Earl had passed away. He thanked us for all of the jokes and stories that we had passed along the way - I told him that it was us who needed to thank Earl. It was nice to know that our fond feelings were reciprocated. I would like to think that Mom and Earl are up above and still trading the odd joke back and forth as well as the family news. That wonderful friendship was all started because of this picture and chance sighting on the web!